The Art and Science
by JustAnotherDude
Summary: Naruto's father was known as a genius of Fuuinjutsu. What if, at a young age, Naruto had been pushed to study the art of sealing?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note - This is my first story. No need to be kind. Just offer constructive criticism. I know I'm having problems with making this story flow smoothly. Unfortunately, I think I just need to practice writing before this improves, although, if you have specific suggestions, please feel free to offer them. If you notice egregious spelling and grammar errors, please let me know, and I'll attempt to correct them.

Naruto does not belong to me. Peanut butter is yummy.

* * *

This chapter was originally published 5/31/10.

Edited on 8/11/10 to fix grammar and spelling issues (although, I'm sure I still left some mistakes in it).

Edited on 8/31/10 to fix some issues that were pointed out in Deritine's review.

* * *

Naruto had been staring out the windows at the clouds, trying to figure out what that Shikamaru kid always found so interesting about them. Unfortunately, the clouds were as boring as the lecture Iruka was giving. Naruto could feel himself getting sleepier by the second.

_'Man, Iruka-sensei should make this into a jutsu. Boring no Jutsu - S class jutsu capable of stopping hordes of enemies-"_

**"Naruto! Are you paying attention?"**

"Wha? I was paying attention sensei, " said Naruto as he scratched the back of his head with his right hand.

"Then, maybe you can tell me one of the uses of Fuuinjutsu, Naruto."

"Um…heh, heh. I, uh, forget."

"Can you even tell me what fuuinjutsu is, Naruto?" Iruka yelled at Naruto while using his famous big head jutsu.

"Err..no, Iruka-sensei."

"Well, I guess that means you need some additional homework to learn what you just missed in class, Naruto. See me after class, Naruto."

"Ah, man."

* * *

"Naruto, you really have to start paying attention in class. You're barely passing - in fact, you're last in class."

"Ah, Iruka-sensei. Class is so boring. Can't you just teach us some awesome jutsu?"

Iruka sighed at at this. It was hard to get any of the kids to want to learn about the fundamentals, they always wanted to move onto the flashy techniques, whether or not they were ready to learn them. "Naruto, you have to be well grounded in the basics before you can move onto the advanced stuff. In fact, the basic techniques and knowledge will be far more useful on a regular basis."

"But -", Naruto started, but was interrupted by Iruka.

"However, I may be willing to help you with some advanced techniques."

"Really?" Iruka could hear the excitement in Naruto's voice. It had just come to Iruka. It was brilliant, he could get Naruto to study and keep him too busy to pull pranks for some time.

"Yes. I could help you learn about Fuuinjutsu," said Iruka. Naruto simply gave his sensei a look of confusion.

"The art of sealing, Naruto. Which you would know if you paid attention in class."

"Um. Okay," said Naruto in a decidedly unexcited voice.

"Pay attention this time, Naruto. Fuuinjutsu - the art of sealing, is the practice of creating seals to create or aid in various ninjutsu. Fuuinjutsu, is, itself, considered an advanced technique that only the most advanced ninja master, although the lowest levels of it are certainly achievable by students."

"So what can you do with it, Iruka-sensei?"

"Well, Naruto, I, myself, am familiar with only the basics of sealing. But from what I understand, what can be done is really only limited by the skill and knowledge of the user. As for examples you would be familiar with, fuuinjutsu is used to create storage scrolls and explosive tags."

"That sounds cools, but anybody can use a storage scroll or explosive tag. But, how come I haven't heard of any powerful ninja that really use fuuinjutsu, besides stuff already made from other fuuinjutsu users?"

"Actually, you have Naruto. The Yondaime, and his sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin, were both fuuinjutsu masters. You don't hear much about the fuuinjutsu part because they were both excellent all-around ninja. In reality, though, a master of just fuuinjutsu would be so powerful that any ninja, even a kage-level ninja, would consider them a serious threat."

"Wow! And you're going to help me master fuuinjutsu, Iruka-sensei?"

"As I said, I know only the basics, but I can teach you what I know, which is more than even most jonin know." While it was technically the truth, it was still slightly dishonest. Iruka did know more about fuuinjutsu that most jonin. Of course, most jonin knew little to nothing about fuuinjutsu.

"Yes, watch out old man. I'm coming for your job. Academy student today, Hokage tomorrow!" Iruka smiled at Naruto's enthusiasm.

"Of course, you haven't been a very serious student, so perhaps I should find someone else. After all, a person could hurt themselves or someone else with the power of fuuinjutsu, if they didn't take it seriously-"

"I can be serious, Iruka-sensei. Just give me a chance. Please," pleaded Naruto.

"Well, I guess this one time I can give you a chance."

"All right. Yes!" exclaimed Naruto as he pumped his right fist.

"However, if you slack off just once, I'm done helping you. That means no pranking while I'm helping you, Naruto - if you have time to prank, you have time to study. Do you understand, Naruto?"

"Yes, sensei."

"Good. Then take this book and read the first five chapters. When you're done with that we can see about starting off on a simple storage scroll."

Iruka handed Naruto the book, 'Introduction to the Theory and Application of Fuuinjutsu'. Naruto gulped when he saw the book but didn't say anything.

"Now, Naruto, this may just be an introductory book, but it's still pretty advanced for an academy student, so I'm willing to answer any questions that you have. However, so that you can get more immediate help, you may want to study at the library. The librarians can help you and point you to additional materials to read to help you."

"What? Even more reading?"

"Is there a problem Naruto? If this is too difficult, perhaps I can find somebody else to teach this to."

"No, no. I was just, uh, surprised. That's all. I guess I'll just go and, um, start reading then."

Iruka rubbed his hands together in glee. He didn't really expect Naruto to learn much about fuuinjutsu; even most jonin found it difficult. However, he thought he could use it to better Naruto's study habits and, if nothing else, he could quit worrying about Naruto's pranks for awhile.

* * *

"Here you go, young man. This is a dictionary. You can look up the definition of any word in this book. All of the words are listed in alphabetical order so that you can quickly find them. The shelf over here", she pointed to a shelf of similar looking books that shared the same kind of binding, "contains an encyclopedia set. These books contains articles that offer explanations on various topics. The topics in them are also in alphabetical order."

"Heh, heh. Sorry for bugging you so much." Naruto didn't want to annoy the librarian with too many questions. After all, Naruto had been happy to find adults that were willing to just talk to him, let alone help him. It had actually been somewhat of a shock to him, when on the first day, one of the librarians had seem him struggling and started helping him of his own accord. And the librarian had even seemed happy that he had helped Naruto.

"No problem, young man. Feel free to ask for more help. These books, however, can give you more definitive answers."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Naruto went back to studying the book on fuuinjutsu.

* * *

Iruka wasn't sure what to think. A couple months had passed but Naruto hadn't come to see him about creating a storage scroll, nor had Naruto asked him for any help. When he asked Naruto about his studies, Naruto simply said he needed more time. However, Naruto did seem to be paying attention in class and his grades had improved somewhat. Additionally, Naruto still hadn't committed any pranks.

Iruka was happy about the improvements in Naruto's study habits and he was definitely happy about the pranks stopping, but he worried that Naruto was simply stuck in his studies on fuuinjutsu. He didn't want Naruto to get frustrated in his studies and then think learning was a waste of time.

"Naruto, I'm happy about your efforts in the classroom, but you haven't seen me about your studies into fuuinjutsu. Have you given up on it? It's a difficult subject, don't feel bad if you need help."

"No, Iruka-sensei. I just need more time." That was all Naruto would ever say.

"Ok, Naruto. Just remember, perseverance is a fine quality, but so is knowing when to ask for help."

"Thanks, sensei. I just need more time." Naruto really wanted to tell Iruka that he already created a storage scroll; he had been too impatient to wait for Iruka's help. But Naruto really wanted to impress Iruka. He figured that once he finished the book, he could pull off some really impressive seal. Maybe Iruka would be so impressed that he would just promote Naruto to genin.

* * *

Explosive tags were surprisingly expensive, and as an academy student he couldn't even buy very powerful ones.

'_Sorry about the diet, Gama-chan,_' Naruto thought as he frowned at his wallet. It was a necessary evil. He didn't want anybody to know that he was experimenting with explosive tags, so he needed these to explain the source of explosions as he experimented with his own explosive tags.

* * *

Finally, school had let out for the summer. Naruto knew the civilian schools let out for the summer, but had wondered why the ninja academy did also. Research had revealed that clans had pushed for it so that they had more time to instruct the children in their clan techniques.

Research. At one point, Naruto never would have thought he would be the type to research something, at least, not voluntarily. But he found learning about things was interesting - at least when he could control what he learned.

He still found learning in school somewhat boring. The explanations tend to be superficial, and even with the shallow explanations, the class moved through the material at a glacial pace. So he read in advance and then he read materials besides the books assigned in class. In truth, he didn't really pay much attention in class, but Iruka thought he was since he could answer any questions on any of the topics Iruka grilled him on.

Now that it was summer, he had three whole months to do nothing but study and he intended to do just that. He had actually grown to like learning so much that he actually just forgot about his plan to impress Iruka with his knowledge of fuuinjutsu.

* * *

"Damn it. My chakra control sucks, " Naruto muttered to himself. He found that he talked to himself a lot whenever he was trying to think through a problem. He supposed it was a bad trait in a future ninja, since it interfered with the whole stealth thing. He also supposed wearing orange was a bad trait in a ninja, but damn it, he _liked_ orange.

Chakra control exercises helped, but he still didn't have enough control to create a basic clone. He had already mastered using chakra to walk up trees and and walk on water this past spring, but he was still no closer to successfully executing the Bushin no Jutsu - his first goal for the summer.

Naruto was sure that his only problem was that couldn't hold chakra steady long enough. He had even tried creating as many clones as possible, so that each clone would get less chakra. All that had happened was that he had created thousands of deformed clones that filled the forest just outside the village where he had been training.

'_Why can't ninjutsu work like fuuinjutsu - just precisely state how much chakra to use, if you want.'_

Naruto smacked himself in the head. He would have to think about the seal would work, and it would probably require some experimentation. He thought he could figure out the seal - he already had a rough idea of how he thought it should work and the experimentation to perfect it shouldn't be a problem. He had learned how to create temporary inks for temporary seals so he wouldn't have an issue with accidentally creating a permanent malfunctioning seal.

* * *

Iruka had been enjoying working the front desk this summer at the Hokage's office, but today he had grown increasingly frustrated as villagers continued interrupting him.

"Yes, I'm sure there is no mutant zombie invasion. No, I'm sure you don't have to be worried about your brain being eaten."

'_I'm sure any zombie choosing to eat at that particular establishment would find themselves going hungry,' thought Iruka._

* * *

Most of the summer had passed and Naruto was still working on the seal to aid his chakra control. He was weary of immediately attempting a chakra modification seal on himself - a person needed chakra to live after all, and he still had a lot of plans to accomplish.

Not that Naruto hadn't accomplished other things in the mean time. He had figured out how to store chakra in a storage seal. And then he had had figured out how to power a jutsu from the storage scroll. By using the chakra storage scroll, he could indirectly execute the Bushin no Jutsu or any other jutsu which the chakra storage scroll had enough chakra stored for. This particular seal could have been used for Naruto's purpose - just place the storage seal on himself and then store chakra in it and run the jutsu off it, but he wanted something a bit more direct. Using the chakra storage seal world be a bit slower than the more direct seal he planned, not that it would matter in most cases, but the real reason was that he saw the more direct version as a puzzle he wanted to solve.

As first the puzzle had been somewhat frustrating. He had originally though that he could find some preexisting design for a seal that would do what he wanted and just compare it to the plan he had come up with for his own seal. He done that with other seals. He liked the challenge of solving the puzzle of creating a seal and seeing how his solutions compared to pre-existing seals. Oddly, his seals often differed significantly. At first, he thought it was due to his inexperience and lack of knowledge. But the more he studied, the more different his seals grew. Still, he found it instructive to look at preexisting seals so that he could see different ways of approaching a problem, even if he found many of the pre-existing seals somewhat convoluted.

He had gone through several books on sealing at the library but nothing was close to what he had been looking for. He found this highly surprising. He knew few ninja had perfect chakra control so it should be a highly useful seal. Also, he found that most books on sealing were like recipe books. You just needed to know the applicable theory and language and you could follow the recipes laid out in the book.

Naruto suspected that many of the authors weren't truly experts and had simply memorized many of the most useful seal combinations and had just experimented with combinations until they achieved the results they wanted. He found that he could simplify the designs considerably in many of the books. Still, if they worked, they worked, and they gave him something to check against.

That fact he thought many of the so-called experts weren't experts initially bothered Naruto. Once Naruto had made some progress through the book that Iruka had given him, he had actually found the theory of fuuinjutsu surprisingly easy. It really seemed like logic and a bunch of common sense. He had actually finished a few books on the theory of sealing and by the last couple had learned nothing new. Once he thought about it, he realized that the truly advanced material on sealing must be considered restricted material that he wouldn't have access to. This eased his mind - he only had access to low level material, which included work by those less than expert in the field - it wasn't the fact the field had so many practitioners that were less than competent.

After getting past his unease of not a having a pre-existing solution to compare his plan against, Naruto grew to enjoy solving the puzzle. Once he had figured out creating the chakra storage scroll and how to power jutsu off it, he had needed to figure out how to destabilize the chakra coming out of the storage scroll so that he could test his chakra stabilization seal on it. He found some simple seals that could destabilize preexisting seals, but he wanted to destabilize the chakra itself and not the seal, so yet again, he had to create an original seal.

Getting the chakra destabilization seal right had taken some work, but in the end, the chakra destabilization seal worked perfectly. He had it randomly vary the mix of the two major components of chakra, physical energy and spiritual energy, and then he randomized the actual strength of the overall chakra. When the chakra destabilization seal was used on top of the chakra storage seal, utilizing the Bushin no Jutsu resulted in clones even more mangled than the ones he created.

These intermediate steps had consumed most of the month. Solving these steps had clarified what Naruto needed to do his stabilization seal and had actually made it seem somewhat trivial by the end. It had worked perfectly the first time on the destabilized chakra emitted from the chakra storage seal. Now he just had to test it on himself.

Naruto painted the necessary seals on his hands. If the test proved successful, he would expand and modify the seals so they would stabilize the chakra from all of the charka emission points, known as tenketsu, over his whole body.

Naruto focused and made the hand signs for Bushin no Jutsu. A picture perfect clone of him appeared in front of Naruto. Success! Naruto immediately started working on seals to stabilize chakra from any tenketsu on his body.

* * *

Naruto made his way to the back of the library. He still wasn't sure why they marked the rear room as 'Jonin'. The seal that restricted access through the room's entrance was trivial to bypass. So were the inner seals that hid another entrance and that opened the entrance. Sure, he had to devise seals that could detect other seals, but that wasn't a problem either. He didn't really know what ninja learned as they progressed through the ranks, but he didn't think his sealing skills were beyond that of a genin, so he couldn't see why they bothered marking the room as Jonin and putting such weak protection on it.

There was also the fact that he never saw jonin in the room. In fact, he never saw anybody in the room - until today.

A purple-haired kunoichi was intently studying a book. Naruto sighed when he realized what she was reading.

"Umm. That's really only a so-so book on fuuinjutsu. It really overcomplicates the theory. I suppose it's OK as a recipe book, although many of the seals should be simplified."

Anko looked up from the book and her eyes widened momentarily when she saw him. She recognized the kid, what adult from Konoha wouldn't recognize the Kyuubi's container. She had no idea what Naruto was doing in the jonin section of the library or how he had gotten back here, but, for now, she would go along with whatever game he was playing.

"Oh, really. Jiraiya is considered a master of fuuinjutsu. If not his book, whose book would you recommend?"

"His book isn't _bad_. It's just not good. Well, I suppose that's not completely fair. He actually seems to understand the material, unlike a lot of authors, but he really does make it a lot harder than it needs to be. If you want a really good book I would read this, " said Naruto as he handed Anko the book 'The Art and Science of Fuuinjutsu by Namikaze Minato'.

"They should call this 'The Idiot's Guide to Fuuinjutsu'," continued Naruto.

"Are you calling, Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, an idiot?" growled Anko.

"No, no. He's brilliant. It's just that he makes sealing so simple that even an idiot like me could understand it. It makes me anxious to see what's in the restricted material."

The kid had to be screwing with her. First he acted like Jiraiya was some second rate sealing master. Then he acted like the Yondaime's book was some elementary primer on sealing, when she knew damn well it was complicated as hell - she had tried to make her way through it, but even Jiraiya and the Sandaime were unable to aid her with it, they had said much of the material was even beyond them. And what was this business about restricted material?

"If you're just trying to remove that seal on you're neck, I could take a look at it for you. I'm no expert, but you would surprised at the number of hacks running around creating seals and calling themselves 'Fuuinjutsu masters'."

"That's it, you're done fucking around with me. You're coming with me, punk."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I welcome reviews, even critical ones. Constructive criticism would be especially welcome. I'm really not happy with my writing, however, I know that I need to write to improve, so I guess all my readers get to suffer along with me :) For whatever reason, grammar and spelling errors seem much easier to catch when reading another's story, so I've probably missed several mistakes. Let me know, and I will correct the issues.

This is really slow chapter, however, I think that it has some necessary set up for later in the story. I know this chapter is coming out roughly a week after the first one, but I don't know if I will maintain that. Writing doesn't come naturally to me, and I have a full time job that has about a one hour commute each way. So along with other stuff that I have to do, and other stuff I _want _to do, I don't have as much time to write as I'd like. However, I'll say that I'll shoot for updates on between a 2 week to 4 week basis, but update faster if I complete chapters faster. I'm a reader of fan fiction, so I know how frustrating the wait can be.

Please, review. The reviews that contain constructive criticism would be most helpful, but they are all appreciated (even a one word review), since it gives me an idea of if, you, the reader, find my story worthwhile. Anyway, thank you to all those people that had nice reviews for me and also to those that are sticking with reading this.

I don't own Naruto. Man hole covers are round…except when they're not.

Originally published 6/6/2010.

Edited on 8/11/2010, mainly for spelling and grammar issues. I'm sure I still missed some issues though.

* * *

"Explain," growled Anko as she held Naruto so that his feet dangled inches from the ground.

"I don't know - you're the crazy bitch! Maybe you have a thing for boys. Or, maybe in your old age, your poor excuse for a motherly instinct kicked in and that's why you kidnapped me."

Quicker than Naruto could see, Anko had a blade pressed up against Naruto's throat.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, coughed to get their attention. "Anko, perhaps you could explain why you brought Naruto and we could proceed from there? And please release Naruto."

"Fine, " said Anko as she quickly withdrew her knife and slammed Naruto down on his ass. She did release him, however.

"Damn it, that hurt, you old bat!"

"I'm in the prime of my life, you little shit stain! I'm a vibrant-"

"Anko, please!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Anyway, I found this little brat in the Jonin section of the library. Not only was he in a restricted section, but in the span of less than a minute, he insulted one of the Sannin, called the Yondaime an idiot, and claimed that he could remove my curse seal."

"Hey! That's not what I said at all. I said Jiraiya's book on fuuinjutsu was only so-so. I actually said the Yondaime was brilliant - so brilliant that he could fully explain fuuinjutsu so even an idiot like me could understand. Lastly, I said I _might _be able to remove the seal on your neck. I actually need to closely inspect your seal to really know."

"Naruto, you have never been known for being, uh, academically strong. So why don't you tell us what's really going on," said the Sandaime.

"Aw, old man. I know I'm not that smart, but, really, fuuinjutsu, isn't all that hard. Look, I can prove it. Here's a seal for storage." Naruto quickly drew a seal, activated it and sealed one of his kunai in it. "And here's the seal for a very lower power explosive tag - basically a firecracker." Naruto drew another seal, and a upon activating it, a little bang was heard.

"All right, Naruto. You've convinced me that you know something of sealing, and what you know is impressive for a ten year old. But there's quite a bit of difference between what you've shown us and what's on Anko's neck."

Naruto was silent for several seconds and seemed to be coming to grips with a decision.

"I can explain the seal on my stomach."

Sarutobi's and Anko's eyes widened. "Naruto, perhaps we should do this in private -"

"It's OK old man. I know the village knows. The seal holds the Kyuubi."

"How long have you known? " asked Sarutobi.

"I've suspected for a couple months, but you just confirmed my suspicions. Since the seal is only visible when I mold chakra, I didn't even know about it until a couple months ago. I only realized it was there when I created seals to detect other seals. It confused me for awhile. I thought they were just detecting my chakra stabilization seals at first, but they kept detecting a seal on me even when I corrected for the chakra stabilization seals. When I finally discovered it, I didn't know what it was at first. It was so complex, but not overly so. It was a brilliant seal - it reminded me a lot of the Yondaime's work. It's an incredibly powerful seal, there are so many layers - I haven't unraveled them all. But I could tell it was meant to hold something demonic in origin. And I could also see the seals for an exchange that would have invoked the Shinigami. Everything just fit together after that. The Yondaime died fighting Kyuubi, I was born on that same day, and I have a seal to contain a demon. I just want to know why. Why did he choose me?" Naruto voice wavered at the end, and his eyes were watering. He was on the verge of crying, but somehow controlled himself.

Sarutobi maintained a calm demeanor but inside he was shocked. He wasn't a master of fuuinjutsu, but he was sure he had never heard of chakra stabilization seals or detection seals. Exactly how much did Naruto know about fuuinjutsu and where exactly had he learned it? In fact, how had he learned it? Fuuinjutsu was considered an incredibly advanced topic. Only the true prodigies studied it as children, and nobody created original seals of any significance without years of study. It was something he would get to the bottom of - later. Right now, Naruto needed an explanation, and more importantly reassurance.

"Naruto, only the adults in the village know that you hold the Kyuubi within you. I created a law that nobody could reveal to the children, or anybody who didn't already know, your situation. I was hoping that you could grow up with a normal childhood. It seems I've failed you, though. I know the village doesn't treat you as such, but you are a hero. The Yondaime, himself, wanted you to be acknowledged as a hero. Unfortunately, people's fear and memories of that day hold more power over them than the words and wishes of a Hokage. But I want you to know Naruto, despite what anybody may say, you are not the Kyuubi, you are its jailer and a hero to this village."

Naruto was crying by now, but he managed to snort at the thought of people thinking that he was the Kyuubi. "Hell, I know the difference between a container and what it contains."

"Kami, this village calls me an idiot," said Naruto as he ran his hands through his hair. "They think I'm the Kyuubi, but then they choose to _antagonize_ me? It's a good thing we are the most powerful village, or somebody probably would have put us in our place by now." Sarutobi laughed at this.

"I know this may be hard to believe, Naruto, but the village is full of mostly good people. But people will do many dumb things out of fear. However, I think that given time, you can convince of them of your true nature and win them over, Naruto."

"Maybe, jiji. Maybe. You still haven't answered my question as to why the Yondaime picked me."

Sarutobi considered telling Naruto the truth, but he felt that if he revealed that the Yondaime was Naruto's father, that Naruto would reveal the secret to others. A few people suspected who Naruto's father was, but only Sarutobi and Jiraiya actually knew. For now, it was a secret that needed to be kept. Even dead, Namikaze Minato still had many enemies that would seek revenge, either by killing his son, or turning Naruto into a weapon against the village that Minato had died protecting.

"From what I understand, the sealing of a demon works best with a young child - the younger, the better. As a newborn infant, you were the youngest child available. I'm sorry, Naruto, but I would have to say it was nothing more than pure chance."

Naruto stood silently, deep in thought, for several minutes as he considered everything Sarutobi had told him. While Naruto was deep in thought, Sarutobi created a message requesting Jiraiya to return to village at his earliest convenience. If Naruto was as brilliant as his father at fuuinjutsu, and all signs were pointing that way, then perhaps he really could remove Anko's curse. While Sarutobi was competent at sealing, he certainly wasn't a master at it, so it was best to have Jiraiya on hand before allowing Naruto to do anything. Besides, he really needed to discuss Naruto's future with Jiraiya before things got out of hand.

"I guess…I guess the Yondaime did the best he could." Naruto spoke softly, and Sarutobi and Anko could see the pain in Naruto's because of the suffering that he had endured because of the Yondaime's action all those years ago. The sadness of Naruto face was suddenly replaced by a look of resolve, "But I'm not going to let the village get me down. It's like you said, I'll just have to win them over. Nobody said becoming Hokage would be easy, after all."

"That's right Naruto. You may very well yet replace this old man." Sarutobi turned to Anko. "Anko, with your permission I would like Naruto to examine your seal - with the supervision of Jiraiya, of course, who I have already sent for, for other reasons."

Anko bit her lip in thought. She didn't really like the idea of some punk kid messing with her seal, but the Hokage did say the Jiraiya would supervise, and she desperately wanted the seal removed. "As long as Jiraiya supervises, I guess it's OK. "

"Well then, since that's settled, how about I treat us all to dinner."

"Dango!" yelled Anko.

"Ramen!" yelled Naruto.

"You can each have what you want," said Sarutobi, heading off the argument before it could start.

* * *

"Thanks for buying, Iruka-sensei," said Naruto as he started eating yet another bowl of ramen.

Iruka's face twitched as he looked at the six empty bowls next to Naruto. "So, Naruto. The Hokage tells me you're able do some sealing. I thought we were going to work on it together."

Naruto blushed as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. "I kind of forgot. At first, I had a lot of trouble with the book you gave me. I guess I wasn't very good at reading. But the librarians helped me look up stuff and showed me how to get around the library. Then I really got into the book and I guess I was too impatient to wait for you, Iruka sensei. Sorry."

"Well, I guess I can understand that Naruto. I'm happy something got you interested in learning." Naruto nodded solemnly at this. "But you could have still told me how things were going, Naruto."

"I was going to, Iruka sensei. At first, I wanted to learn enough about fuuinjutsu to try to impress you, but then I got really into it. And I kind of, uh, forgot about you. Heh heh." Naruto blushed in embarrassment at this.

"That's OK Naruto. I'm proud of you. Fuuinjutsu is considered very difficult. Really, if you can handle learning about sealing, if you applied yourself to your schoolwork, I'm sure you could ace your written tests at school."

"Hah, Iruka sensei! I'm onto your tricks. I know that ninja are supposed to hide their abilities." Naruto had his arms crossed in front of him and had a smug look on his face.

After a moment though, he had a look of confusion on his face and started talking to himself. "Or was I supposed to hide the fact that I was able to figure out that you were testing me on if I had known to hide my abilities during the tests? Or maybe it was better to say that I knew to hide my abilities, thus, actually acting as I if didn't know this was a test, and therefore hiding my ability to figure out this test, but then simultaneously calling into question if I had truly known to hide my ability earlier."

Naruto regained his smug look. "Hah, Iruka sensei! I'm onto your tricks. I know that ninja are supposed to hide their abilities," Naruto repeated.

Iruka blinked his eyes a couple of times as he deciphered Naruto's dialogue with himself. "Are you saying, you have been intentionally not doing as well as you could on tests, Naruto?" Iruka asked with disbelief in his voice.

"Well, if I was and I told you, I wouldn't really be hiding my abilities, would I?" Naruto smiled, then started eating his ramen again.

"BAKA!" yelled Iruka, as he smacked Naruto on the back of the head, causing Naruto to spit out a mouthful of miso ram. "You hide your abilities from your enemies and potential enemies, not your teachers. We need to fully know your abilities so that we can properly evaluate you and help you achieve your full potential."

Naruto's lips quivered and Iruka could see the start of tears in his eyes. "Sweet, beautiful ramen. I'm so sorry, my miso ramen, " said Naruto while he leaned over the counter and hugged the bowl of ramen to his face, while Iruka rolled his eyes at Naruto's behavior.

"From now on, Naruto, just do your best on the tests." Iruka considered this for a second. "And no making the teachers look underneath the underneath, either. OK?"

"Fine," said Naruto in exasperation.

* * *

"Hey, Sweetie, you got a moment?" asked Inoichi.

"Sure, Dad, what's up?"

"Why don't go we in the dining room and talk."

Ino eyed her Dad suspiciously. Part of her father's duties was working in the Torture and Interrogation unit. He used the Yamanaka clan's bloodline of mind walking to crack the toughest cases, but even without using the family bloodline, he was considered a master of interrogation. Whenever her father asked Ino to talk in the dining room it was for an interrogation. Oh, Inoichi would call it a father-daughter talk, but Ino knew better.

Ino sighed and sat down. By now she knew there was no point in fighting it; she'd tried in the past and knew there was no getting out of it. Inoichi smiled and sat down across from her.

"So, I'm a little worried about one of your classmates."

"Oh? Which one?" asked Ino. Asking about students wasn't really all that unusual, Inoichi was trained in psychology, and Ino knew that her father was occasionally asked to evaluate the psychological stability of students in the academy. Ino waited on her father. She knew he was waiting on her to volunteer some information - he had told her somewhat about his work. She also knew, because she was his daughter, and also because he feared her mother's wrath, that he wouldn't treat her like an actual interrogation target.

"Good, good. You acted disinterested and didn't volunteer information. Of course, an enemy would be employing various psychological tactics before starting on various forms of torture. But you'll learn about various resistance techniques as you progress through the academy, and more when you finally make genin. Right now, however, I want you act as a leaf ninja helping out their village. So don't hold anything back. Now, tell me about Naruto, Ino."

"Naruto? Well he's loud and obnoxious," Ino started, but then she paused. "Well, I guess he's not as loud as he used to be. He used to pull pranks all the time and was a total clown. Half the time, he skipped class. But sometime last year, he must have gotten serious, because he was actually able to answer Iruka's questions in class sometimes and he started getting decent, but not great grades in class.

"Get this though. He came into class, claiming that, this year he wasn't going to hide his abilities and was going to show everybody his awesome ninja skills and prove that he has what it takes to be Hokage. As if. Even if he wasn't the dobe, there's no way he could be better than Sasuke-kun. I bet Sasuke-kun becomes the youngest Hokage ever."

"Hmm. How does he get along with the other kids, Ino?" asked Inoichi.

"Like I said, he's kind of obnoxious, so he doesn't really have any friends. Plus, all of the villagers hate him because all of the pranks he used to pull. So I guess most parents don't want their kids associating with him because of that."

"Ino, you mostly just confirmed what I already knew. I want you to do me a favor. Naruto is a very lonely kid. I think a lot of the obnoxious behavior is because he doesn't have any friends and just wants the attention. So, I want you to try to be his friend."

"Ugh. Friends with Naruto? Who'd want to be friends with that loser? You can't be serious dad. Do you really want me associated with someone with like him?"

"Ino, what I'm going to tell you about Naruto isn't really a secret, but I'm sure nobody in your class really knows, so I would prefer you didn't tell anybody else. I really mean it, Ino - no gossip. Ok?"

"Fine. Ok, Dad. " Ino sighed. She loved to gossip, she loved learning juicy secrets about people and trading it for juicy information on others. However, she knew not to cross the line with her father.

"Ok, then. I have reason to believe Naruto has been holding back, at least for about the last year. "

"No way. Still, though, that doesn't necessarily mean too much. How good can he be?"

"I, along with others, believe Naruto has great potential. This is why I want you to be friends with him. It may not be by his choice, but he's a loner. Right now though, he still seeks friends, so he hasn't developed the loner mentality, and it would be best if he never did. He has a few talents he could develop for use as a very powerful ninja. But, surprisingly, his intelligence may be his greatest strength."

"No way! Naruto? Smart?"

"Yes, Naruto. Definitely smart."

"Fine then. As smart as Sasuke?"

"Smarter."

"Well, Sasuke-kun is pretty smart, but he's awesome in so many other ways, so maybe this one area Naruto might be better. Maybe. But, Naruto can't be as smart as Sakura, though."

"Smarter."

"Well he's definitely not smarter than Shikamaru. He's lazy, but I know he's the smartest kid in the whole academy, plus you even told me that he might be as smart, or even smarter than his dad."

"Ino. If I what I know about Naruto is correct, he's at least that smart. And he's driven. That's why he needs friends."

"What? There's no way Naruto is as smart as Shikamaru. Shikamaru is so smart it's scary. If he's so smart, why would he need friends?"

"To put it in your words : He's so smart it's scary. Right now, Naruto doesn't really have any connections to this village. In fact, he has many reasons to hate Konoha. Given time, he could develop into a threat as great as Orochimaru or Itachi. Possibly even greater. Now do you understand why I want him to have friends?"

"Yeah, I guess." Ino gulped.

"Friends would give him a connection to this village and give him reasons to fight for the village and not against it. But, if he's so dangerous, why do you want me to be friends with him?" asked Ino.

"Ino. He's a good kid. You don't have anything to worry about. But, I want to make sure he stays a good kid. I think you can be a good influence on him. So will you help me? Please."

"Ok, dad. I'll help. Besides, with someone as popular as me to help him, he's sure to make lots of friends. But's there's still no way he's as awesome as Sasuke-kun."

* * *

Ino thought abut her situation over the night and concluded that she didn't really know much about Naruto. That meant she really didn't know how to approach Naruto. So she supposed she would just have to observe Naruto for awhile and gather information. Unfortunately, that meant she had to give up her seat next to Sasuke so she could sit behind Naruto.

"Hah, Ino-pig. I see that you finally realized that Sasuke-kun and I are destined to be together," said Sakura

"As if, forehead. This is all just part of my little plan," Ino bluffed.

"Whatever, enjoy loser-ville."

Ino was steamed, but she did say she would help her dad out. '_Man, Dad is so going to owe me for this.'_

Ino didn't know how Naruto was able to answer Iruka's questions. Naruto didn't seem to be paying any attention to Iruka. He had what appeared to be a medical book, that he kept jumping around to different sections of, and he had a scroll and several sheets of paper strewn about the desk. As he jumped around the book, he would read something, start muttering to himself, and then start writing on one or more of the sheets of paper. Occasionally, he would scribble something down on the scroll. He also had a few other books that he would occasionally open and read for several minutes.

When lunch time came around, she still hadn't learned much about Naruto.

_'Great. I know he likes to talk to himself. Unfortunately, either I don't hear him most of the time or I can't understand what he's talking about most of the remaining time. How am I supposed to make friends-'_

"So Ino, whatcha' doing?" asked Naruto with a mouthful of the apple that he was eating.

"Ewww. Naruto, didn't your parents ever tell you not eat with your mouth full?"

Naruto's eye narrowed for a second, as he wondered if Ino was intentionally mocking him for not having parents. "I don't have parents. I'm an orphan."

"Umm. I'm sorry, Naruto. I really didn't know."

"Oh, that's Ok," said Naruto and he took on his normal, friendly demeanor. "So what are doing you over here, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Ino, that you always sit next to the great Sasuke." The sarcasm in his voice was plainly evident when Naruto said Sasuke's name, but Ino chose to ignore it this time, although she did grind her teeth in irritation for a couple of seconds. "And, I know that you've been watching me."

"What? In your dreams, creamsicle boy!"

"Come on. I caught you watching me. Plus, you haven't been able to answer Iruka when he's asked you questions in class."

Ino blushed in embarrassment. It was true, a couple times today, Iruka had caught her not paying attention.

"I guess curiosity got the better of me. You're always reading or making notes in class, but it doesn't seem like you were doing school work, so, I was just wondering what you were doing." Ino hadn't really paid that much attention to Naruto before today, so she was just guessing that today's behavior had been typical. However, it looked like she had guessed right.

"Oh. Heh, heh. Yeah, don't tell Iruka. I read ahead along time ago, so I don't have to pay attention in class. Well, actually, I like to read and learn about different things. A lot of it is related to fuuinjutsu."

"Fuuinjutsu? Isn't that supposed to be really hard?"

"Nah, you'd be surprised how easy fuuinjutsu is, and how versatile it is. I think the instructors just tell us it's harder than it really is, so somebody doesn't accidentally blow themselves up. Right now, I'm working on a chakra control seal. Its expands on and improves the chakra stabilization seal, which I created to help me with the Bushin no Jutsu."

"What's the difference between a chakra stabilization seal and a chakra control seal?"

"Well, the stabilization seal does just what the name says. It stabilizes the chakra that I focus towards some ninjutsu. However, I have to have the initial control for setting the flow, power, and the specific tenketsu to output it from. And those are just the basics, with advanced control, you can do even more things, like controlling flow among the actual chakra pathways, not just at the tenketsu. So the chakra control seal will help me achieve a finer control of those basic settings, in a sense, and allows me access to the advanced control abilities.

The chakra control seal is a much more extensive seal than the stabilization seal. It requires much more extensive knowledge and application of anatomy and physiology. At least it does for what I intend to use it for."

Ino was at a loss for what to say and blurted out, "So, umm, want to eat lunch with me and Choji and Shikamaru?"

"Really?"

"Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

Well, first of all. Just, wow. Thank you, everybody, for the reviews. I'm trying to take into consideration what people are suggesting. Hopefully, it will show with improvement in my writing.

Several people noted my typos and improper word usage. This was partly (a small part) a function of the word processor I was using. It sometimes, silently, incorrectly replaced a word when I misspelled it. So I switched from using it, and started using OpenOffice. This will hopefully help somewhat with the inappropriate words.

Anyway, I'm sure there will still be plenty of typos and incorrect words, hopefully, they'll be significantly reduced. I am looking into getting a beta, and a couple of reviewers volunteered, but I thought I should mention what I'm looking for in a beta. I'm looking for a beta that will not only help me with me with grammar and spelling, but also someone I could occasionally bounce ideas off of, and perhaps the beta could suggest ideas, also. Additionally, I'd like a beta who could be critical of my writing in a general sense – somebody that could help me become a better writer. This last part would probably require an experienced writer. So, if you want to beta and fit my criteria, or can suggest someone else who can fit my criteria who may want to beta for me, please, let me know.

A few people mentioned that I goofed up the scene with Anko and Naruto because Anko wouldn't have had her seal on display. Yep, I screwed up, and that was a detail I knew about and simply forgot. So, yeah, apologies for that error.

Gosh, I really think this chapter is not that great. I've rewritten it in my head and on the computer several times. I think it's better than what I started with, though. And I need to release something – it's been too long since my last chapter. Sorry about the long wait. This writing stuff is hard for me.

As always, please review. Oh, if you have ideas for seals, please feel free to mention them in the reviews. If I use your seal, at the end of the chapter that uses it, I'll give you credit. All power levels of seals are welcome, especially the weaker ones, and even just prank type seals.

I don't own Naruto. But I own several cats (ignore the cats' snickering – they don't own me - I think.)

EDIT (8/8/2010 5:45 EDT : UTC - 4) : Some text got italicized when I uploaded (I checked my original and it was fine), so I fixed this issue. I use italicized text mainly for inner thoughts. Let me know if I missed any.

Credit goes to jcogginsa for alerting me to the issue. Thanks.

Originally published on 8/8/2010.

EDIT (8/8/2010 6:30 EDT : UTC - 4) : Tried to clear up the passage on bloodlines. Really messed up what I was trying to portray, hopefully, it is more clear. It still may not be. Thanks to He Who Rules With an Iron Hoof for pointing out the issue.

EDIT (8/11/2010) : Fixed my edit dates (the earlier ones on this chapter showed 8/2/2010 instead of 8/8/2010). Also fixed my usage of 'sannin'. Thanks to the anonymous review who pointed it out. I was using it correctly earlier, but somehow got confused. Anyway, it should be fixed now.

* * *

'_Geez. He must think I'm such an idiot. 'So, umm, want to eat lunch?' That was all I could think of to say? Well, what the hell? Throwing out creating seals like he just baked a pie or something,'_ thought Ino and she led Naruto to where she usually ate lunch.

"Hey guys, what's up?" asked Ino as she sat down at the bench where Choji and Shikamaru were playing a game of shogi.

"Um, hi," said Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head with right hand.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow when he saw Naruto he simply said, "Hi", but thought, '_Troublesome female. What exactly is she playing at?'_

"Hi Naruto," said Choji as he munched on some chips and contemplated his next move.

"Ew, Choji, don't talk while you eat!"

"Aw, Ino. It's lunch time. Talking while you're eating doesn't count at an actual meal," complained Choji, but gulped and held up his hands in apology and said, "Sorry! Sorry!" when Ino gave him an angry glare.

Naruto looked at the group nervously. He knew all of them, but he wasn't friends with them. Naruto watched silently for what seemed like an eternity as they conversed. He never really never knew how to interact with people, he wondered what he should say.

"Hey, guys, want to see to a really awesome seal I made?" Naruto blurted out suddenly.

"You know fuuinjutsu, Naruto?" asked Choji, sounding impressed.

_'Fuuinjutsu? Naruto? That would explain what he's always studying in class. I suppose I should have made some effort to see what he was up to, but it seemed so troublesome at the time. But still, Naruto? Sure he hasn't acted as dumb for awhile now, so I suppose he's finally gotten serious. But fuuinjutsu is supposed to be difficult,' _thought Shikamaru.

"Well, only a little and just the basics," Naruto blushed and rubbed the back of his neck as he said this. "But I've made a couple of seals, this is easily the best one I've made so far. Watch this!" said Naruto as he pulled out three scrolls from his jumpsuit's numerous pockets.

Naruto set two of the scrolls atop the third one and he then applied chakra to the bottom scroll.

"Tada! Isn't that amazing?"

Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino could see that Naruto was clearly excited but they they were utterly confused as to why. They had seen him lay down the scrolls and it looked like he might have applied chakra to them but they saw nothing .

"Uh, what exactly did you do Naruto?" asked Shikamaru. '_Don't tell me this has been some lame prank.'_

"Heh, heh. Oh yeah, I guess I did forget to tell you. Here smell it," said Naruto as he picked up the bottom scroll and handed it to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru looked askance at the scroll, but sniffed it. "I don't smell anything."

"Pass it to the others to try."

"Nothing here," said Choji.

"Er, I don't smell anything either, Naruto," said Ino.

"Exactly!" said Naruto as he beamed with pride.

Ino finally lost her patience with Naruto. "Baka! Scrolls don't smell to start with. What the hell was the point of this?" yelled Ino.

"Huh?" said Naruto as stared at them in confusion for several seconds.

_'What...the..hell? Genius? I think this kid is seriously brain damaged. What was Dad thinking? I think Naruto is just delusional or something.'_

"Oh!" said Naruto as smacked himself in the head. "Here, use these" said Naruto as he handed Choji a pair of chopsticks and the scroll. "Go ahead. Give it a try."

Choji looked dubiously at the scroll, but at the urging of Naruto, dipped his chopsticks at the scroll, or actually, _into _the scroll and found himself pulling out noodles. He stared at the glistening noodles for a second and then placed them into his mouth.

"Hot ramen!" exclaimed Choji.

"That's right. _Really _instant ramen. I got tired of waiting the three minutes it took to boil the water, so I made a seal to make ramen faster. I just lay the ingredients, ramen and water, or the storage scrolls containing them, such as I did in this case, over the cooking scrolls and apply chakra."

"You're a genius!" exclaimed Choji and he slurped down some more ramen from the scroll. Ino and Shikamaru both rolled their eyes at this.

"Ok, so what was the deal with us smelling the scroll?" asked Ino.

Choji's eyes lit up as he suddenly understood the full brilliance of Naruto's creation. "You made the perfect ration scroll. When you go out on missions, you have hot food without alerting anybody with a fire, or even the smell of food. Can you do this for other foods?"

"Well, not this particular scroll, I suppose I could adapt the techniques for other foods, although it would take some experimentation to get the food cooked correctly, and I don't know anything about cooking except for ramen."

"I know a lot about cooking. Maybe I could help you..."

Naruto and Choji talked about cooking and how Naruto could adapt recipes for the seal, while Ino and Shikamaru finished Choji's now forgotten shogi game and reconsidered what they knew about Naruto.

* * *

"Sasuke," said Iruka. Sasuke walked up the front of the class and retrieved his test.

"Sakura." She too retrieved her test.

"Ino."

_'Yes! Take that Sakura,'_ thought Ino. Ino normally received very good grades, and, in fact was only behind Sasuke in overall class rank, but Sakura quite often came out ahead in the written tests.

"And finally, Naruto." Naruto blushed and went up and retrieved his test. Iruka always handed back the tests so that in reverse order of grades. Those with lowest grades got their tests first and those with the highest received theirs last. It was meant to shame the lowest performing kids into better efforts, though it usually failed to make any difference.

"Wow, Naruto. You've had the highest grade on every written test so far," said Choji. After their the discussion three weeks ago at lunch, the group had grown closer with Naruto and now Choji, Ino and Shikamaru sat with Naruto every day, so it was easy for them to converse.

"Good work, Naruto," said Ino. Shikamaru was going to remain silent, not finding any particular reason to say anything – Naruto's name was called last, so it was obvious he had done well, but Ino's glare towards him convinced it would be less troublesome just to praise Naruto.

"Yes, good work Naruto. It is troublesome though. Hanging out with Ino is bad enough. Associating with another high achiever sets a bad example for my parents. My mother already nags me enough about working harder in school. So troublesome."

"Bah, ignore the lazy bastard, Naruto. You're kicking ass," said Ino.

"Thanks." Naruto blushed at the praise that he was unaccustomed to receiving. "But like Choji said, _written _tests. My taijutsu still needs a lot of work. I work on it, but..." Naruto left his thought unfinished. Taijutsu frustrated him. He worked diligently on it and he did improve, but he was still only middle of the class at it.

"You know, we could help you Naruto," said Ino.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I should talk to my father about how we should train, though. We could meet this weekend, right guys?" Ino said the last part like a question but Shikamaru and Choji both knew it was a demand.

"Sure."

"So troublesome. Whatever."

* * *

Anko sat in the dango shop eating quietly. Occasionally, her hand would reach towards her neck and she would quickly pull it away.

_'Damn seal. Damn brat. What hell does that kid think he is? Thinks he can remove the seal. Not even Jiraiya – one of the freaking sannin – can remove this seal. Why the hell does the old man think some punk kid can? I don't care if he does have the Kyuubi sealed in him._

_Still, what if he can? But, how could he? How does a kid learn fuuinjutsu anyway? Still, the brat was in the jonin section of the library and that does require special seals._

_If he can, though...I wouldn't have to worry about my fucking bastard, former sensei being able to put me down in no time flat because of the damn seal. Hmm...maybe I could surprise the bastard and actually put a kunai through his eye.' _Anko smiled at she pictured Orochimaru lying dead on the ground with blood running out of an eye socket.

_'Maybe he wouldn't die right away, and I could see him squeal in pain.' _Anko chuckled at that, making a few patrons of the establishment, who knew of her tendencies toward violence, nervous.

_'Nah, better if it kills him straight off. I think only an instant kill blow would really take him down. A girl can dream, though._

_With the seal gone, maybe the village would finally see I'm not under Orochimaru's influence.'_ Anko recalled her treatment from the village over the years and realized that nothing would probably satisfy them.

"_Assholes. The only person treated worse than me is that damn kid. The entire village would probably shit themselves if he actually did become Hokage._

_Well, the Hokage seems to like him. I suppose if the old geezer can last long enough he could choose him as his successor. Hmm...The kid would need a lot of help to become powerful enough to be considered for the position._

_If, and that's a big fucking if that could fill the Valley of the End. If he could remove the curse, I suppose I would owe him and could help the little shit train a little."_

Anko growled, the whole thing was moot until Jiraiya arrived.

_"It's been a month. Where the hell is Jiraiya anyway?" _

_

* * *

_

"Well, I'm glad to see that you finally made it here Jiraiya. I trust you had a nice relaxing trip," said Sarutobi. The Hokage's words, themselves, were friendly, but the tone was quite icy.

"Well, I had important work to do you see..."

"It took you a month to get here."

"What? No, hm, it was..." Jiraiya paused while he thought about the recents events and started giggling as he thought about the topless beach he had stopped at.

"Jiraiya!"

"What? Um yeah, it was only three and half weeks since you requested that I return. You did say at my earliest convenience," Jiraiya gulped at the snarl Sarutobi gave his former student. "Hokage-sama."

"Jiraiya, when I say at your earliest convenience, I mean that you should return in the fastest possible manner without endangering any vital missions," growled Sarutobi.

"And judging from the mission report you handed me, you could have returned immediately," continued Sarutobi.

"Uh, heh, heh. It won't happen again, Hokage-sama."

"See that it doesn't."

"So...what do you wish of me Hokage-sama?" asked Jiraiya deciding that it would be wise to show some respect for a while longer.

"Here, look at these reports."

Sarutobi waited patiently while Jiraiya read through the folder of papers that he had handed him.

"How does this happen? I mean, going from dead last to creating fuuinjutsu on his own? I know Minato picked up fuuinjutsu at an amazing rate, but everybody knew he was a genius well before then. Earlier reports showed Naruto having no academic aptitude. In fact, reports made him seem like quite the dunce."

"I've talked at length with Ibiki and Inoichi about this. While quite unusual, it's not unheard of for a child's intellectual abilities to take massive jumps. It happens with children that probably should have been prodigies, but for some reason have had their intellectual capabilities stunted. In Naruto's case, it was, as you no doubt know, the emotional trauma he's suffered from being a jinchuurikki. Finding something that truly interested him and took his minds off other matters apparently acted as catalyst."

"So, he really does take after his old man, then."

"Well, it seems so. That's part of why you're here. I want you to examine the seals Naruto has come up with and evaluate Naruto's skills."

"You said that was part of it. What else?"

"Naruto would like to examine Anko's curse seal and possibly attempt to remove it."

"Even if it is possible to remove it, there's no way he's ready to attempt something like that."

"Jiraiya, look how far he's come in so little time. At least look at his seals and then make the decision." Sarutobi knew that he could have ordered Jiraiya, but he felt it was important to place trust in his subordinates' areas of expertise if he truly wanted to have their trust and their best efforts.

"Fine, let's do it."

"Jiraiya, you should know that he knows about the Kyuubi."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If he's as talented at sealing as you say, he would have had to have figured it out at some point. So I assume he knows about his father then."

"No, he hasn't figured that out. I don't believe Naruto is responsible enough at this point to handle keeping that a secret, so I haven't told him either."

Jiraiya stared at Sarutobi. To the Hokage's credit he did at least look guilty about keeping Naruto in the dark about his parentage.

"We have to tell him."

"We will. But now now, when he's older."

"Damn it, old man. He's got the right to know!" Jiraiya had his hands planted on Sarutobi's desk and his face was inches from the Hokage's as Jiraiya yelled at him.

Despite Jiraiya's anger, Sarutobi remained calm. "Yes. Yes, he does. But the safety of the village overrides the rights on an individual. We both know that there are many that would love to get their hands on the son of the yellow flash. And we both know that Konoha can't afford to lose Naruto."

"Bah. This village didn't deserve Minato. And it doesn't deserve his son." The anger was still present but Jiraiya wasn't yelling.

"Minato thought the village was worth sacrificing himself."

"Damn, fool. His sensei should have taught him better." The anger was gone, and the sadness was evident in Jiraiya's expression and voice. Minato had been like a son to Jiraiya and thinking about Minato still pained Jiraiya.

"His sensei did an excellent job, and right now I could use his help."

"Fine," Jiraiya sighed. He felt Naruto had the right to know, but Sarutobi did have a point – after the way the Naruto had been treated by the village he might blurt out about his father in some attempt to validate his existence. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

Naruto waited outside the Hokage's office. He wondered why the old man had summoned him. He talked to him on a somewhat regular basis, he supposed, but it was unusual to actually be summoned. It made no difference to him, either way, he just worked on his chakra control seal while he waited.

"You may go in now, Naruto."

"Ok, thanks."

Naruto noticed an older shinobi with spiky white hair sitting in the Hokage's office.

"Come in and take a seat, Naruto," said Sarutobi.

"Naruto. This is Jiraiya," said Sarutobi as he gestured toward the other person in the room.

Naruto turned and looked at Jiraiya. He squinted his eyes and cocked his head to the side while he stared the man up and down.

"Who?"

"Jiraiya, of the sannin." said Sarutobi.

"Um...wait a second, that rings a bell." Naruto had actually recognized the Jiraiya's name from the first mention and knew of the sannin, but he had decided to have some fun. "Oh yeah, he's the author of those books you read when you think nobody's looking."

Sarutobi blushed as he said, "You're mistaken Naruto. You must have me confused with someone else."

"Nope, you. And a orange book. I remember because your nose always bleeds when you read them." Jiraiya laughed at Sarutobi's embarrassment. Of course, he knew that Sarutobi was one of his fans, but he knew the Hokage tried to hide that particular hobby from the public.

"Oh, wait. Didn't he also write that book on fuuinjutsu?"

"Why, yes, I did write a book on fuuinjutsu."

"Meh, it was only mediocre," said Naruto. Sarutobi then got his chance to laugh at Jiraiya's embarrassment.

"Oh, what was wrong with it, mister fuuinjutsu master?"

"Hey, I'm not claiming to be a fuuinjutsu master. The book was okay, but the seals were more complicated than they needed to be."

Jiraiya sighed at this, he now knew what the deal was. "Hold on a second." He then started going though several scrolls he had with him. "Found them," he said as unsealed two books from a scroll.

"Is this the book you read?" asked Jiraiya as he handed one one of the books to Naruto.

Naruto quickly scanned through the book and found the same, overly complicated seals. "Seems to be."

"Here, now look at this book," said Jiraiya as he handed him the second book.

As Naruto scanned though the second book, he saw the organization was similar but it had simplified seals and different explanations that were expanded and more detailed. "Wow, this one is much better. The seals in here have been simplified and the explanations are much better."

"That first book is an introductory book. The second book is an advanced book on fuuinjutsu."

Naruto scrunched his face in thought for a few seconds. "I don't understand. The seals in the second book are simplified. Don't they belong in the introductory book?"

"They're simplified, but they're more advanced-"

"But they're simpler. They're much less complex and easier to understand. Come on, even the explanations are easier to understand in that second book."

"_Yep, definitely taking after his father now. Only Minato or his progeny would think the advanced fuuinjutsu book is simpler," _thought Jiraiya.

"Naruto, although those seals would typically be said to be simplified, I think that for the purpose of this conversation, you should think of them by the other term they go by - reduced."

"But the seals are in their simplest form. They are simpler," insisted Naruto.

"Look, Naruto. You may think those seals are simpler, but most people find the introductory book hard enough -"

"That's because you give them complicated seals. If you gave them something like your second book or the Yondaime's book then they would find it much easier."

"Doesn't work that way. It's been tried. People find the introductory books fit better with their intuition because those complex seals are closely related to hand seals. Heck, when I initially learned fuuinjutsu it was with seals similar to the ones in that introductory book. I'm considered a master of fuuinjutsu and I can tell you I wouldn't have been able to learn from those reduced seals very easily."

"But...I don't understand." The look on Naruto's face expressed utter confusion. Jiraiya found the look comical and found himself chuckling at Naruto which caused his expression to change to a scowl.

"Ah, don't be upset kid. I'm only laughing because you remind me of the only other person I've met that thought the reduced seals were easier to learn from."

Naruto looked unconvinced as he glared at Jiraiya with his arms crossed in front of him.

"No, really. You're in good company. It was the Yondaime."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. You may have some talent. May."

"Yes! One step closer to Hokage."

"One out of about a million."

"It doesn't matter. I won't give up. I will be Hokage."

Jiraiya gave Naruto an appraising look. "Maybe."

"Definitely."

" First thing's first, hotshot. Let see if you really know anything about sealing. Let me see these seals you've created, and I'll actually judge you on your work."

"Um, ok." Naruto bravado disappeared at the thought of showing Jiraiya his seals and the criticism he would receive. He had secretly harbored a fantasy about being called brilliant when he revealed his seals to a fuuinjutsu master, but in the face of an actual one, he knew that it was as foolish as he had always really thought.

"Start off by telling me what the seals are supposed to do, and how to activate them."

"Er, can't you tell that by just inspecting them?"

"I can tell how they _actually_ work, but not how they're _intended _to work."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'. There can be a big difference in what a seal is supposed to do and what it actually does. Keep that in mind, both with your seals and those from others. It will save you a lot of trouble in the future."

"Here's a storage seal. It, um, stores things things and-"

"Just show me your own original creations, Naruto."

"I only have one of my own seals with me, but it's the best one! The rest are back at my apartment."

"Actually, I'd like to see all of them. Let's go to your apartment."

* * *

Jiraiya watched as Naruto unlocked his door and stepped into his apartment.

"Aren't you coming in?"

"Aren't you going to deactivate your seals kid?"

"What seals?"

Jiraiya palmed his face and groaned. "You're a moron, kid. Didn't you think about putting seals around your place to protect stuff and keep the riffraff out? "

"Ooh, that is a good idea." Naruto had a thoughtful expression on his face as he considered the types of seals he should place around his apartment.

"I've read about some of your exploits Naruto. You should have figured out seals to keep people from trespassing when you had bypass jonin restriction seals in the library."

"So, they were to keep jonin out! That explains why I never saw any jonin in there. Except for the one scary lady with seal. Maybe she wasn't a jonin."

"Baka! The seals are supposed to keep anybody but jonin, who happen to have seals to bypass them, out. And Anko is a jonin." '_Well, she's a special jonin, but they have the seals too. She should have been a jonin by now, anyway. The Hokage lets village politics interfere way too much in ninja affairs.'_

"Oh," Naruto said and paused to think about it. "I don't get it."

"What's there to get, kid?"

"How come I didn't see any Jonin there?"

"A few reasons. Some have narrowed their skill sets and advanced their skills past the point of what's contained in the library. Some have their learning materials. A few have gotten lazy and don't bother learning anymore – those ones either learn a very painful lesson out on some mission or end up dead.

Many, however, try to avoid being seen by others in the library. Some are a bit too paranoid about showing any weakness."

"That seems to make sense, though. Don't you want to conceal your weaknesses?"

"You do. However, among your comrades you have to show some trust. If you can't show your weaknesses among your comrades you're just interfering with your own progress.

Now before I give you the mistaken impression that Konoha has a bunch of jonin afraid of showing any weakness, you should also know some of them just make it into a game to see if they avoid being seen by other jonin. You, being an academy student, were easily avoided by jonin.

Enough about that. Let's see some of those seals of yours."

"Um. Oh, here's a chakra storage seal. You channel into this seal," Naruto pointed to a seal at one end of the scroll, "and it'll keep storing the chakra as you apply it. You can also use it as the chakra source for powering ninjutsu. It has to be in direct contact with your body to work. You do the hand seal sequence for your jutsu, then grab your the seal with a hand, and with your free hand you do the hand seals. I could have chosen any, since, in this case, they are just the trigger mechanism and don't have anything to do with the actual jutsu formation, but I chose dog, monkey, snake. Of course, since you only have one hand and the signs normally require two, I made it respond to half seals."

"What factors determine when it collapses? Do you have a collapse rate formula for it?"

"Huh?"

"What determines when the seal will fail?"

"What good would it be if it failed?"

"Let me see the seal, Naruto." Jiraiya's eye widened as he examined the seal. Chakra storage seals were problematic. The storage seal itself always tried to consume the chakra, which caused it to eventually completely consume what it was storing, or, even worse, explode at some random time when seal grew unstable from too much energy. The actual details were pretty complicated; he ought to know since he had attempted to create a perfect storage seal many times.

'_Naruto's a genius! He doesn't even have access to the advanced chakra theory that his father came up with, not that he needed it, apparently. This seal uses only the theory you can find readily available in any of the decent fuuinjutsu books._

_Effectively creating a second storage seal with part of the storage space sitting it another dimension yet sharing some common dimensions with the original storage seal's space was brilliant – each of them attempt to draw on the chakra being stored but the way he constructed the seal he has the forces drawing on the chakra canceling each other out. Not just a brilliant idea, this took amazing technical ability to construct. Given the idea, Minato or I probably could have constructed this seal, but very few others could have. Still, the seal would have ended up constructed differently if I had made it. Naruto used some very clever techniques in its construction._

_I could definitely incorporate some of the ideas here into my own designs.' _Jiraiya stared off into space while thinking and then frowned. '_Something about this seal seems vaguely familiar. Damn it, it's going to drive me crazy until I figure out what it is.'_

"Good work, kid. You've managed to avoid the parasitic problem with chakra storage seals that most encounter." Jiraiya decided he'd keep it a secret, for nor, that _everybody_ encountered that problem.

"Yes! I'm awesome. What did I tell you-"

"However, this is an advanced jutsu that you should not let other know about-"

"But I've already told others about it."

Jiraiya palmed his face in exasperation. '_Kami, this kid is a moron.'_

"Have you told anybody about the details of the seal or given anybody a copy of it, Naruto?"

"No, I haven't told anybody about the specifics of any of my seals or given anybody any copies. Nobody else I know really seems that interested in fuuinjutsu."

_'Thank Kami for small favors,'_ thought Jiraiya.

"If anybody asks, your storage seal has the parasitic problem too, Naruto. No bragging to others. I mean it," said Jiraiya.

Naruto crossed his arms and scowled but relented. "Fine. Whatever, I have better seals."

"Really?"

"Much better. That was one of my earliest original creations, well discounting any obvious derivatives I used basically just for learning purposes. Here look at these," said Naruto as he handed Jiraiya a bunch of scrolls.

"Kid, you and me need to talk about creating original seals and how important it is to keep them a secret."

Naruto frowned as he sensed a long lecture coming on.

* * *

Jiraiya was back in the Hokage's office. He had recently left from Naruto apartment where he had spent several hours inspecting Naruto's work and talking with Naruto about fuuinjutsu.

"So what do you think, Jiraiya? Is Naruto is as talented as he appears? Or is old man just being hopeful?"

"The kid is a moron."

Sarutobi frowned. How could he have so misjudged someone's talent? Perhaps he was getting too old for the job? His musing were interrupted before he could further doubt himself.

"However, he is also brilliant. He's a brilliant moron. He lacks common sense and doesn't think things through usually. When he actually does start putting that brain of his to work, though, it's simply amazing."

"How amazing?"

"Naruto is as brilliant as his father. Until today, I never thought I would mean somebody as gifted with fuuinjutsu as Minato. Minato learned fuuinjutsu at an unbelievable rate and started creating original seals early in his sealing career. Naruto is just like him. Most people take years before they even start creating their own original seals. Naruto's already done complex seal work with less than a year of self-training. It's incredible."

"So the chakra storage seal was an original seal, then, I take it?"

"Yeah. Amazing, and really no advanced theory required for it. I'm surprised Minato hadn't come up with." Jiraiya frowned for a second. "Of course, the knuckle-head probably did and neglected to tell me about it. He was always coming up with seals, then blew off the majority of them thinking them too trivial to mention. Damn geniuses."

Sarutobi chuckled at that, he remembered Jiraiya's struggles with Minato. Jiraiya had always been justifiably proud of his student, but at the same time, it had been vexing dealing with such genius.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Jiraiya. You, yourself, are a genius at fuuinjutsu – ah, don't bother denying it, it's true. It is one of the primary reasons you are one of the sannin."

"Maybe. For the most part I see things pretty linearly. I go from A to B to C.

Sometimes, I can make the jump from A to C. Minato could go from A straight to the letter Z, and from there figure out the intermediate steps so us normal folks could understand it. Sometimes anyway. Minato was a once in a lifetime genius – no, once in history genius. Or, at least, it seemed that way until Naruto."

"Bloodline, perhaps?"

"I don't know. If so, Minato was the first one to exhibit it. I don't know. Maybe it's just a regular genetic thing that any civilian could have had. Not that I really know the difference but Tsunade claims there's a difference between a bloodline and plain old inheritance. She tried to explain it to me once. Something about bloodlines having some common identifiable trait due to their relation to chakra, while regular inheritable traits don't. Didn't really get it - not my area of expertise. Cured my insomnia, though. Either way, Naruto has the potential to go further than his father."

"Oh? Why do you say that? Is he that much more talented than even Minato?" asked Sarutobi.

"I don't know. I'm not qualified to say who is more talented. I don't think anybody is. But we lost Minato in his prime, he still had many productive years left. Naruto has his whole life ahead of him. Additionally, Minato developed a lot of theory on fuuinjutsu and chakra that will save Naruto a lot of time. Naruto has a much better starting point than Minato did."

"How does Naruto rate now? Is he as skilled as the typical fuuinjutsu master?"

"No, definitely not. Outside a fight, sure, some would consider him a fuuinjutsu master. He's already a great theoretician, but he's not ready to use his knowledge in battle. Even if we disregarded his other ninja skills, Naruto would get slaughtered in a battle against a fuuinjutsu master. There's still a lot of tricks and techniques that he needs to learn. He also hasn't actually memorized many seals. He can figure every thing out... eventually. He won't have that time in a battle. But he's definitely got the potential to be a true master – with the appropriate training. Which is why I think you should let me take Naruto with me for some extended training."

"Absolutely not. Naruto is only now starting to form bonds with this village. All his skills will do us no good if he cares nothing for Konoha."

Jiraiya could tell from the vehemence in Sarutobi's voice that he would not be able to convince Sarutobi to let him take Naruto with him. Not immediately, at least. "Fine. What if I were to take him just for the summer? That's several months away from now."

"I will take it under consideration. For now, though, what shall we do about Anko's seal?"

"I say we let Naruto examine it. He may have some new insight. But, as I said before, he's not ready to remove it even if he does figure out a way to do it."

"Then, I will arrange for Anko and Naruto to meet us here, tomorrow. Ten o'clock?"

"Sounds good."

Author's note:

Sorry, still haven't got to Anko's seal. I'm still working on that, but I wanted to something out since it has been so long since the last chapter. Thanks for reading, and please review. Oh, don't forget to mention ideas for seals if you have any (powerful or trivial, they're all good).


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